A new perspective on the Court

UPDATE July 9: The final version of Professor Cole’s article can be found here.

Georgetown law professor David D. Cole, who has a gift for thinking originally about the law, has written a provocative new article suggesting that the Supreme Court has moved toward more liberal results as it seeks to recover the legitimacy he argues was jeopardized by Bush v. Gore (2000). The Court’s record since that ruling put an end to the constitutional crisis over the 2000 election and put George Bush in the White House suggests, Cole writes, that the Justices realize that that legitimacy was put into doubt and have moved to “rehabilitate the Court’s image by reducing partisan division, correcting to some extent the Court’s considerably conservative tilt, and emphasizing the importance of a rule of law that is distinct from and rises above politics.”

The article, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Georgetown Law Journal, is titled “The Liberal Legacy of Bush v. Gore.” The full text can be found here.